Life at Hogwarts
by 630leosa
Summary: It's been almost ten years since the battle of Hogwarts. The school itself has reopened and is running as usual. Every year brings new students with new problems, and this year is no different. PS There aren't many official characters... maybe as a cameo.
1. Between platforms 9 & 10

**Author's notes: Okay guys, this is my first shot at a Harry Potter story so it might not be that good. (If not, then sorry!) Also bear in mind that this writing style is not how the rest of the story will be written, for some reason the intro turned out to be in a completely different style…**

"Platform Nine is just down there, love." James barely heard the mumbled thanks he received as he looked round the crowded train station where he worked.

The morning shift could be a very busy time of day to be working this time of year, but he couldn't help but notice how King's Cross seemed more crowded then the last station he'd worked at. True, lots of children were being sent out to fancy boarding schools by themselves, not so different from anywhere else, but the crowds here were very different.

He didn't think many boarding schools allowed pets, but many children had come through with cats, rats and owls. He'd even been stopped by a kid who had apparently lost his _toad_… But that was nothing compared to the clothes he'd seen people wearing. London was used to weird styles but this was just bizarre! James felt like he'd seen hundreds of people wearing strange clothes that day: bright bowler hats, men in women's dresses and army boots, snow gear, one-piece bathing suits - and these were the adults dropping the kids off.

But the odd thing was, out of all the children of these weirdly-dressed parents and the ones with strange pets like owls, he couldn't once recall seeing them getting on the trains at either Platform Nine or Platform Ten, where all of them seemed to be heading.

James was quickly distracted from these thoughts as he felt something hit his leg. Looking down, he saw that he'd been hit by a trolley loaded with suitcases. He looked up in time to see a young girl running up to him, apologizing at what seemed to be a hundred words a minute.

"OhmygoshsirI'msosorryIreallydidn'tmeanto..."

James smiled, bending down to replace a small overnight case that had fallen off her trolley.

"It's okay, it's pretty easy to lose control of these things. What platform are you heading for?" She seemed to panic when he asked her that.

"Oh, I, um," she looked down at her ticket nervously, then back to him, "it's, uh, Platform..."

But James didn't get to hear her answer because she was suddenly cut off by a woman's loud voice:

"GEMMA, COME ON! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR THE TRAIN!"

The owner of the abnormally powerful voice came rushing over to her, followed by two more young girls. She mumbled a quick thank you to James before taking her daughter's trolley and nudging her towards Platform Nine.

James stared after them for a while before a loud crash drew his attention to a small group of kids who had apparently crashed into the wall between Platforms Seven and Eight.

When he ran over to make sure they were all right, he couldn't help but notice that they were also oddly dressed and an owl was flapping about in a cage that had toppled over.

One of the kids looked up at him, trying to keep a straight face as he explained what happened.

"Sorry sir, lost control of the trolley."

James sighed, running a hand through his hair. _It's just gonna be one of those days_.

"Hurry up, you two, or we'll miss the train!"

"I'm _trying_, but the wheel's stuck!"

"Give it here, Dimitri. Here, you take mine."

"…How'd you do that?"

"There was nothing wrong with it! Let's go. God, why do I have to be related to you?"

"Aww, Tina, you love me really… Hey, wait up, Lou!"

"I'm not babysitting you, and I'm not missing the train waiting for you two!"

"Aww, you wouldn't leave us all alone in a scawy place like this, would you Lucy?" Tina asked her brother in a stupid baby voice that made Dimitri burst out laughing and almost lose control of his trolley again.

"Call me Lucy again and you'll be traveling to Hogwarts underneath the wheels!" He snapped back at her, speeding up and disappearing into the wall between Platforms Nine and Ten

"I'd like to see you try." Tina laughed, following him through the wall.

Dimitri hesitated for a moment, looking around to see if anyone else was about to go through. He saw someone stood next to the wall with a cigarette, but the man gestured for him to continue through the wall.

Dimitri took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he charged through the wall to the other side, where he stopped to look at the brilliant red train in front of him.

He noticed a pretty blonde helping to pass cases up onto the train and he waited behind her to load his own cases. When she'd finished, the boy she'd been helping leaned out of the train to give her a hug.

"Bye mum, I'll owl you as soon as I can tonight to tell you what house I'm in!"

Dimitri couldn't help but wonder how the two could be related: she was tall, very pretty, and her blond hair was neatly curled at her shoulders. Whereas her son was small and thin and looked really shaggy, his hair was a brown mess with a grey streak tucked behind his left ear, and he had odd-colored (mismatched or "wall"?) eyes. The woman turned and smiled, noticing Dimitri for the first time. She seemed to realize he was on his own and politely asked if he wanted a hand with his luggage.

"That'd be great, thanks." He smiled and started unloading his things.

As they started to pile them onto the train, Dimitri noticed his brother passing on the train and called out to him.

"There you are! I was gonna ask if you wanted a hand, but it seems you already got one." His brother leant against the wall with his arms crossed, watching his pretty blond helper. "And a much better-looking one than me, by the look of it… I'm Lucifer, by the way. And who do I have the honor of thanking for helping out my little brother?" He said, smiling at the woman and clearly liking what he saw.

Dimitri expected the woman to snap at his brother but instead she just smiled.

"Aww, that's so sweet. I'm Janey Buckle."

Although she seemed to take his obvious flirting as a compliment, Lucifer seemed to react as if she'd just slapped him in the face: he lost his balance and only just stopped himself from falling to the floor.

"Janey Buckle? _The_ Janey Buckle? As in _THE_ same famous healer, Janey Buckle?"

Dimitri was distracted from his brother's conversation by a small, dark-haired man coming through the platform entrance with a scared-looking girl. She must have been about the same age as him. They were followed by who he assumed to be her mum and sisters.

Janey Buckle smiled at Lucifer; seemingly oblivious to the fact he was now gawping at her.

"I'm just dropping off my son, Kim. It's his first day today - his father's coming now with the last of his things."

As if on cue, the dark-haired man came jogging up towards them. Dimitri recognized him as the man who had been smoking on the platform outside.

"Sorry I'm late, I was helping a muggle-born and her family through the gate… Lucky I was there too, train's about to leave any minute! Everything alright here?" He asked, looking between his wife and Lucifer.

"Yeah, fine." She bent over to give her husband a kiss and gestured over to Lucifer. "I was just having a little chat with this dashing young man here."

Her husband frowned and looked over to Lucifer, who felt his cheeks go red. He quickly dropped to the floor to gather the rest of his brother's things.

"Well, I think we should leave them all to find a carriage and get settled. Kimber, you be good now, you hear?" He grinned, passing his son a rucksack that looked like it was probably stuffed with clothes. "And if you forget anything else just send us an owl, alright? And let us know what house your in, okay? I've got a bet going with your uncle that you'll end up in Ravenclaw like your mother!"

He winked at his son, and his wife hit him lightly on the arm before they both walked away from the train to join the other parents, who were all waiting to wave off their children before leaving the station.


	2. All aboard

Gemma walked up the aisle of the train, looking for an empty compartment, or at least one that wasn't full.

She'd dropped her trunks off in the luggage carriage at least ten minutes ago and she still couldn't find a compartment to sit in. She considered just sitting in the aisle somewhere out of the way - by the toilet perhaps - and reading her book until they got to Hogwarts.

Part of her still thought she was going to wake up any moment, curled up on a bus with a witches and wizards book, on her way to a normal, boring comprehensive school.

She shook her head aggressively. This was happening: an owl really had flown through the open kitchen window with that letter and she had gone to a secret town in London to buy things. Like it or not, she was going to start in a school for people from a world she knew nothing about…

She hadn't realized that she was crying till a small shabby boy came up to her and asked what was wrong. She just shook her head, not knowing what to say.

Kim didn't know what to say. He couldn't leave her here crying, and he hadn't found a carriage yet or he'd have asked her to sit with him.

He quickly scanned the closest compartments to see if any were still empty so they could talk, but unfortunately none of them were.

He sighed and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall of the carriage behind him. Looking up at her, he realized she was staring at him. He wanted to say something that'd make her feel better but he couldn't think of anything, so he just said what he was thinking.

"They always say the first day's the hardest, right?"

She seemed to smile slightly at that, although it was hard to tell through her tears. He couldn't help but smile as she sat down opposite him.

"I hope so."

Her voice was strained because of her tears but he was still glad to hear her speak.

There was an awkward silence for a minute or two while neither of them knew what to say, though the girl seemed to be calming down a little. After a while, Kim decided to be the one to break the ice.

"What's your name?" Kim couldn't believe that he'd sat in silence for that long and that was all he could come up with. "I-I'm Kim, by the way." He added quickly, not wanting to seem rude.

For a second he didn't think she was going to answer him, but then she looked up at him and this time he could clearly see her smile.

"…Gemma."

"Well then, Gemma," He said, standing up and offering her his hand. "Fancy looking for some spare seats?" To his surprise, she nodded and pulled herself up, wiping away her tears with her sleeves.

"That one down there doesn't look too full."

Gemma led the way towards a quiet compartment, three down from the ones they had been sitting against, and looked inside.

There were only two people inside: a boy with brown hair was reading a book that she recognized as 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1', and a girl with shoulder-length black hair who was staring out of the window and listening to something through a set of headphones.

Kim knocked the door politely before stepping in. The boy looked up at them, silently asking what they wanted.

"All the other carriages are full." Kim said bluntly.

The boy looked over at his companion before putting down the book.

"That's okay. You want some help with your case?" This question was clearly directed at Gemma and she felt her cheeks heat up as she passed her case over to him. She could tell that her eyes must still be a bit red and puffy from crying, but thankfully he didn't mention it. Mumbling a quick 'thank you', she sat next the dark-haired girl who still hadn't noticed their arrival.

Gemma was surprised at how easily Kim had picked up his heavy case. Due to his height he had to stand on the seat, but he practically threw it onto the luggage rack before dropping down next to the other boy, who had finished with her case and sat down. There were a few moments of awkward silence before Kim decided to speak up.

"So, my name's Kimba and this is Gemma." Kim reached out his hand to shake to the other boy's hand.

"Dimitri," The boy smiled back, looking over at Gemma as he let go of Kim's hand "and that's my sister, Tina." He added, giving the other girl a light kick.

Tina growled quietly. She'd been daydreaming, listening to her favourite song when her brother had kicked her back into reality.

"What?" She snapped, pulling off her headphones and turning to look at her brother. How had she not noticed two more people in the carriage? "...Who are your friends?"

"Kimba and Gemma."

She sighed, realizing that he wanted her to talk to them, and then tucked her headphones back into her bag.

"So, do either of you have any idea which house you're going to be put into?" She saw her brother glaring at her, but she didn't care. This was a good chance to find out what type of people they were.

Gemma seemed nervous, she was playing with her hair and looking as if she were hoping for some distraction. Tina was looking straight at her.

"Uh, well, I don't know. I mean, no one knows what house they're going to be put in, do they?"

"Not really," Dimitri answered, shrugging his shoulders, "but most people can guess. I mean, just look at the Weasleys: all nine of them were in Gryffindor."

The shabby-looking boy seemed to be thinking aloud. "I don't know where I'll end up. My dad thinks I'll make Ravenclaw like my mum, but I guess Hufflepuff wouldn't be too bad either. That's where my dad was."

"Our whole family's been in Slytherin," Tina smiled proudly, "so its a pretty safe bet that we'll be placed there too. Which houses were your parents Sorted into?" She added to Gemma, who shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

Dimitri glared at his sister again, couldn't she see that Gemma didn't want to talk about this anymore? He quickly looked around for a distraction, and then glanced down at his watch.

"Well, you guys had better change, we should be there soon." He stated, noticing that he and Tina were the only ones in their robes. "I think the toilets are just down there." He added to Gemma, motioning towards the end of the carriage. She quickly grabbed her bag and half-ran towards the toilets before Tina could ask her anything else.

Dimitri could feel his sister's glare burning into him as he watched Gemma leaving.

Kim pulled his robes out of his bag and started getting dressed. He took off his T-shirt, revealing that he had a bandage loosely tied halfway up his upper arm, and he was littered with scars. Dimitri wondered what had caused all that damage.

"Do you tend to get into a lot of fights?" Tina asked, clearly noticing the scars as well.

"I, uh, guess you could say that," Kim said quietly, pulling his robes over his head and sitting back down next to Dimitri.

"What did you do to your arm?" Dimitri asked, trying to pull up the arm of Kim's robe.

Kim quickly pulled his arm away and gripped it where the bandage was tied.

"Like you said, I got in a fight." He snapped, holding the bandage more tightly.

"Then why won't you let us see it?" Tina pressed, clearly wanting to know all the details.

"Because... I've been told not to let air get at it or it'll get worse." He growled.

Dimitri looked back over to his sister. He could tell Kimba was lying but he didn't want Tina to carry on asking him about it.

However, before Dimitri had a chance to distract his sister, Gemma returned - fully dressed in her school robes - and sat down next to Tina.

Tina looked between Kim and Gemma, trying to decide whether to carry on with Kim or switch back to Gemma. Sighing, she looked out of the window again, deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble.


End file.
